Outside of the Wardrobe
by Fae 206
Summary: Set after the 2005 movie. Despite being out of the wardrobe, the Pevensies still have to cope with the lives that they lived behind the wooden doors. Susan finds it particularly tricky to live as a twelve-year-old with the mind of someone nearly thirty. However, life gets even trickier when Peter shows signs of becoming a White Wizard without a path back to Narnia and to the cure.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Thanks for choosing to read this story. I read these books as a child, all of them but for this fanfic have decided to only focus on the 2005 movie on the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. I hope you enjoy nevertheless.

Also, my first chapters tend to be shorter than the other chapters to see how much interest there is in a fic.

**Outside of the Wardrobe**

**Chapter One**

Susan Pevensie sat alone in a corner of the library within the large house. She could read about the war for days but it wouldn't make it stop or give her a plan on how to stop it. She had no power here. She didn't have the title of queen or the ability to make any real change. Instead, she was just…Susan, a schoolchild. She had been twenty-seven years old, fully able to make choices and decisions for not only herself but for others. Now that she wasn't yet a teenager, she had to live by the rules of adults.

It was good that the Professor believed them, that he allowed them to live within the idea that they were all strong adults who had been royalty for a decade and a half. What was bad was that only weeks later, she couldn't adjust to being stuck in the body of one who hadn't experienced puberty. She felt worst for Lucy. As hard as it was to be a twelve-year-old, Lucy was burdened to be in the body of an eight year old, barely able to look over high counters.

Susan sighed. She could at least keep her mind performing at the level it was with books and creative outlets. At least she could take pleasure in the fact that she could read at a higher level and that she had an education or as much of an education as one had in Narnia. Aslan had taken care of that.

As Susan kept her solitude, she heard another person walk into the room and felt a cold that reminded her of the White Witch. She wrapped her arms around her but then saw that the individual's feet were extremely pale as if they were suffering from hypothermia. Getting up, her eyes widened as she saw Peter there. Her brother often tried to distance himself from the others when he was having problems and the hints of blue were even coming to his hair.

"There has to be a medical book somewhere," Peter struggled as he looked through the books on the shelf and Susan watched him. She didn't know whether it was best to be an observer or to offer her assistance. "There has to be," Peter said before his hand went to a glass item and it shattered as if it had quickly frozen.

Something was wrong with her older brother.

"Hey," Susan said and Peter turned to her before pulling back, his face looked different as if the angles were more defined. He shivered, coughing harshly before crashing onto the floor. He hadn't suffered like this when he had been a king of Narnia and now there was no easy path back to the kingdom. "Peter!" she screamed as he struggled to breathe and she put her hands to his cheeks, forcing his head up so they could look at each other. "What is it?" she asked.

"Susan, whatever you do," Peter said, his voice reflecting the pain that Susan could see that he was feeling. "Don't tell the others, please?" he asked and Susan took a sharp breath in before shaking her head. Something was wrong. Something had happened. She had to see if the others had a plan but as she looked again into Peter's eyes she knew that she couldn't betray that trust.

"If I don't tell them then I need to help you," she tried to tell him and he shook his head. "Peter, you _need_ help and what kind of sister would I be were I not to help you," she challenged him.

"It's impossible," he said and Susan shook her head. They had already experienced something that even a fantasy writer would call impossible in real life. Even though it all felt like its own fantasy, Susan believed it was real, she believed in that place she had spent the majority of her life…her old life.

"I think I'm becoming an Ice King, a White Wizard," he tried to explain and Susan brushed his hair back lovingly. She had always shared a special bond with Peter and he had with her. Despite them having other siblings, there had been a time when it had only been the two of them. "How can this happen? Narnia doesn't exist in this realm."

Susan shook her head, not knowing how to answer that. All that she knew was that her brother was in pain and she would make any sacrifice to save and protect him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Peter kept his eyes closed as he sat down on a wooden chair in the study. Susan had grabbed him a blanket and was making him some tea. Peter knew he had worried her but he didn't know how to cope with this situation himself. Becoming an Ice King, maybe _the_ Ice King. No, he wanted to defend those who were in Narnia and keep them away from evil. Besides, he wasn't able to use the wardrobe to enter that realm again. It was stupid. He should at least have _some_ way of entering the other world. He felt the chill through his body and closed his eyes only to hear the laughter of the White Witch. He shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, pulling the blanket closer.

"Here," Susan said as she came over to him and set down a hot cup of tea in front of him. "Drink this, it'll help you feel better."

"Thank you," he smiled as he looked at her lovingly. He paused as he thought about how painful the war in their world had become. This was a time when countries were fighting against one another. Perhaps if he had been younger, his parents would send him to a hospital were his body in this type of condition but during a war all of the medical supplies and hospital rooms were more needed for the wounded soldiers.

"How are you feeling? Are you having -"

"Of course I feel strange," Peter said as he clutched to the warm cup. He turned it to the side and Susan watched him, waiting for him to give her directions on what he needed for her to do. "My mind. My mind has felt funny since I left but now it seems more connected to that world than ever."

"The pathway is blocked though," Susan replied as she sat down with her own cup of tea. "There is no entry into Narnia that we know of. Even were you to develop powers, there's nothing that can be done. I don't think any regular human would ever be able to understand."

"And that is what I fear most," Peter told her. "They wouldn't know how to handle this situation. They might call me mad or a danger to society. They might loboto-"

"They would never do that to one of our age," Susan argued with him. She sighed before reaching across to her brother and held his hand. "I'll be here for you. Hopefully shortly, the war will be over and mother and father will return. When they have come back, they might listen to us. If you do develop -"

"Do you think the Professor might be one to talk to?" he asked and Susan looked down. Her eyes snapped open as she saw the tips of Peter's hair becoming a bluish white. She didn't want to say anything to alarm him further.

"We could try," Susan shrugged. If this had already taken such a physical toll on Peter or at least his appearance, Susan didn't know how much longer it would be until she saw more of her brother disappearing and becoming more attune with that of the fantasy world. She understood his fear of not letting their siblings know. The older man had seemed to sense something about Narnia but she wasn't sure herself what that was, still he seemed to have a unique and most importantly open mind. Maybe if they went to him together there would be something which they could do.

"How about we go to see him tomorrow?" Susan asked, "After all, he did tell us that if anything were wrong we were allowed to come to him."

Peter gave a half smile. He nodded. He wasn't sure whether the Professor could do anything. This wasn't a mortal problem. Yet, he wanted to try. He just had to prepare himself to get through yet another night of fear that he couldn't control his body and he was the victim to whatever his body wanted from him and not the other way around.

CONCONCON

Susan knocked on the professor's door early the next morning. Although Peter's temperature had risen during the night, his appearance was still worrying. He looked ravaged, torn apart by the elements. Of course, inside an old house like this in England the elements weren't easy to come across. Peter had suggested that he try to look more presentable but Susan felt that him going as he was would give their story the credibility it needed to have help offered.

"Sir," Susan said as the professor acknowledged her, "Good morning. I was hoping that I could talk to you for a moment, if that isn't too much of a hinderance. I would appreciate it."

"Of course, young lady," the professor smiled as he gestured to an empty seat opposite his. "Come and sit and we'll talk. Would you like any tea?"

"It's okay. Actually, it's about my brother, we wanted to discuss something," she said and Susan gestured for Peter to enter the office. He gave a mini bow to the man who stared at him in horror.

"Is this something new? Has there been a medical - we must send out for medicine at once," he said quickly and Peter took a step back. He shook his head. If this was what he thought it was, nothing that the British medical field could do would fix it. They didn't have medical texts about Narnia. They would know how to treat him less than he knew how to treat himself.

"Sir," Susan said as she placed a hand on Peter's shoulder. "My brother's sufferings. I believe that it is magic that is behind it. I understand that that might be hard to believe."

"Not hard to believe at all," the professor said before nodding. "It makes perfect sense to me."

Peter and Susan shared a look with one another. They didn't want to comment on how the average person would find something like this very difficult to understand because more than anything, Peter needed help. Still, unless the professor was going to let them into a well-guarded secret, they didn't know for sure.

"Well, we were hoping that there could be something done. We feel that a medical opinion would be wrong if they did not have our life experiences," Susan said and Peter smiled weakly.

"Professor, if I would be able to be quarantined from the rest of my siblings," Peter suggested and Susan coughed, "except for Susan, I think that I could reach the cure myself. I've always been good at my studies and -"

"And she'd watch out for you," the professor gestured to Susan who nodded, "Ah, I see. The younger siblings shouldn't be frightened. This is an occasion for those with more maturity. I understand however, I do want to seek out a doctor who is open to curses without fearful operations."

"I would be grateful for that," Peter nodded and Susan shared a knowing look with him. They knew that all four of them were more mature than anyone would ever give them credit for. They knew that they all had lived lives that were filled with more knowledge and more experience than most would ever know. It wasn't the right time to say this. If a miracle happened and were someone to turn up who could help with these curses then that would be for the best but Peter knew he had to do the work himself.

He knew that he would either have to do months' worth of research or he would have to rediscover Narnia himself.

CONCONCONCON

Susan stared out the window at the moon. She wished that the world would go back to normal soon. She was worried about her parents. She was worried about the state of the country because of the war. She was terrified for Peter. The last time she had seen him, his skin had steadily turned more pale and he was looking so different from the person he had once been when he had been safe and unaware of other worlds.

Susan heard Lucy's sniffles and moved away from the window. She went to her younger sister and wrapped her arms around her. "Hi," she said as Lucy hung to her. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Who knew that she would return to being such a baby," Edmund commented and Susan frowned at him. "What is he doing anyway? They'll be sending him to war soon, won't they?" he asked and Susan cleared her throat as Lucy cried even more.

"Peter is dealing with something all by himself, we need to be thankful for the sacrifice that he's making and patiently wait for him to be healed from it."

Lucy sniffed and rubbed at her eyes as she heard Susan say that, "He's sick, isn't he? He's gone away because he's sick?"

Susan looked at her, pausing maybe a little too long to make it not seem suspicious. "Yes." She nodded. "Yes, he's sick and we just have to hope he gets better."

Lucy sighed and looked to the doorway. If that was true then tomorrow she would try to find him again. It had been too long since she had seen her eldest sibling. She would have to convince him that sickness or not, they cared deeply for him. She had no idea why she hadn't been able to find him any of the times she had looked before but this time she would. She would make sure of that.

**End of Chapter Two**

**Thank you for reading**

Thank you to thunderbird shadow for reviewing Chapter One


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